Name: Celery and Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 2 stalks celery; 3 oranges; ½ lb. walnuts; 1 lb. Malaga grapes; cooked dressing or mayonnaise

Why it works: Celery and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Celery and Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut celery into ½-inch pieces.
Halve the oranges and scoop out the flesh.
Seed the grapes.

Assemble and serve

Mix the celery, orange flesh, grapes, and walnuts lightly with cooked dressing or mayonnaise.
Serve in orange cups garnished with smilax.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,771 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Walnut + grapetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Celery + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together452 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Celery: Adds a crisp texture that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Oranges: Add juicy sweetness and a bright acidity.
Malaga grapes: Add juicy sweetness and a soft, tender texture.
Walnuts: Add crunch and richness from their natural oils.
Cooked dressing or mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness that binds the salad together.